


A Life's Work (From Generation to Generation)

by Telaryn



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Leverage
Genre: Case Fic, Corporate Espionage, Crossover, Gen, Hacking, Next Generation, Threats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 07:44:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3166955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Olivia Sterling is a force to be reckoned with in cyber-security. Being her father's daughter, she won't rest until she sits at the top of her profession - and she knows just the backs to step on in order to get there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Life's Work (From Generation to Generation)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [melpomenethemis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/melpomenethemis/gifts).



> This is another tale set in the "Leverage v2.0" universe created by myself and tanghali. The new characters are all pretty self-explanatory. I hope you enjoy the story melpomenethemis - it's pretty obviously crafted with you in mind.
> 
> (on that note, thanks for the consult from CatKing_CatKin to make my work more realistic!)

“That sounds great Maggie – no, he’s going to love it.” Olivia Sterling drummed her fingers lightly on the steering wheel and tried not to let hints of her exasperation seep into her voice. Her frustration had nothing to do with her stepmother, and after being married first to Nathan Ford and then Olivia’s own father it could be argued that Maggie had already born more than her fair share of other people’s bullshit moods.

Unfortunately for Olivia it also meant that the perceptive Dr. Collins was better than most people at detecting such moods when they occurred. “Do I need to let you go?” she asked, a slight edge to her tone.

 _Of course now the light goes green!_ “No – Mom, I’m sorry. Traffic is a nightmare, and if I’m late to this meeting I might as well not go at all.” She pressed down on the accelerator and expertly maneuvered her silver Tesla through the morning congestion. The car had been her present to herself after she’d signed her first big client for Allied Security – the third biggest and fastest growing cyber-security firm in the country.

She heard Maggie snort softly in her earpiece and knew her use of “mom” had been recognized for the hasty attempt at an apology she’d intended it. Olivia had been focused on college and her future when her father had finally gotten up enough courage to propose to Maggie; it wasn’t an age for forging new parental bonds, and bless Maggie she’d never pushed. “You need to get your head in the game then,” Maggie said. “I understand. Will we see you for dinner on Sunday?”

Olivia made a noise of assent. “Six o’clock. I’ll be there. Oh, and don’t tell Dad – I’m bringing a quinoa dish. I found a new recipe that looked really cool.”

“He’s not going to trust you after the tofu incident,” Maggie said, “but I’ll keep your secret.”

The call went dead in Olivia’s ear just as she turned into the parking lot of MOU, Inc. The teenage and twenty-something crowd called the company “mooing”, but it was really an acronym that stood for “Masters of the Universe, Inc.” The name was enough all on its own to get Olivia’s eyes rolling, but whatever they wanted to call themselves, they currently held the patent on the best-selling energy drink of all time.

And if their in-house counsel was as good as Olivia had heard, they were also highly motivated to find a way to keep themselves out of the courtroom. Right now the rumored lawsuits were civil in nature, but some of her sources had told her that an ambitious district attorney up towards San Jose was contemplating bringing criminal charges.

Grabbing the first available parking space, Olivia was out of the car and heading for the elevator almost before the engine had completely died. If there was enough evidence out there for someone to even be considering criminal charges it was only a matter of time before a certain group of self-styled Robin Hoods came sniffing around looking for the smoking gun. San Jose might be a ten hour drive from Portland, Oregon, but Olivia had gotten very good at picking what targets Leverage International was likely to consider worthy.

She was her father’s daughter, after all.  
***************************************  
“Get your hands up!” Eliot barked as his daughter’s guard dropped _again_ and Faith tagged her for it with a light tap on the side of her head. “Bad guys aren’t gonna pull their punches if they get their hands on you.”

Haley was getting frustrated – her footwork had never been the greatest, but it was deteriorating before his eyes. Eliot knew deep down that he needed to back off and let Faith handle things, but things had gone pear-shaped on the last case the kids had taken on. Haley had been in very real, physical danger, and Faith almost hadn’t reached her in time.

“Even Sophie has a basic knowledge of self-defense,” he’d told her after she and Faith had recounted for him everything that happened and he saw for himself how deep Hayley’s emotional bruising went. “She’d be the first to tell you that not everybody can be played, and when that happens you need to have a solid plan B.”

She’d been openly skeptical, but invoking her heroine had been the right move. Faith had been the one to insist that Eliot not get in the ring with her himself. “I know you trained the rest of them,” she said, “but trust me – you can’t stop being that girl’s father when you square off with her.”

He’d been resistant, but Faith brought things to the table he could never hope to match – she was female, and when you paired that with the fact that she was both stronger and better trained than he was, there was arguably nobody better to teach Hayley the finer points of defending herself. Faith was also closer in age to his daughter, which he’d quickly learned gave her an insight into Hayley’s thoughts and motivations that he could never share.

After circling each other twice more, Faith stepped back and raised her hands. “Enough.”

Hayley’s entire body seemed to slump. “What’d I do wrong now?” She was sobbing for breath, and now that she was still Eliot could see that her face was a darker red than it should have been. Heading for the steps leading into the ring, he paused just on the wrong side of the ropes.

Faith was already helping her take her padded helmet off. “Go splash some water on your face and catch your breath,” she said gently. “If you want water, tiny sips – not too cold.”

Eliot swung himself into the ring just as Hayley turned and saw him. “Do what Faith said,” he told her, pitching his voice as soft as he could. “This is hard work, and you’re not doing yourself any favors if you get sick.”

She looked as though she wanted to say something and Eliot braced himself for whatever adrenaline-fueled outburst was about to be aimed at him, but then the moment passed and she nodded miserably. Reaching out, Eliot brushed his fingertips lightly against her hair as she passed, then went to talk to Faith.

“I’m going to put her on the bag for a few days,” she said as soon as he was in earshot. “She doesn’t have enough confidence to face a real opponent – not after what happened.”

Eliot folded his arms across his chest. “Do you think we should call it for today? That’s a lot of emotion she’s carrying right now – it’s making her sloppy.”

“She’s entirely outside her comfort zone,” Faith countered. “ _That’s_ what’s making her sloppy – that plus the fact that she’s having major flashbacks every time she puts those gloves on.” Quickly stripping out of her own gear, she began working the kinks out of her arms. Eliot had been surprised to see Faith wearing the protective gear, until his lover pointed out that there was nothing to be gained by rubbing it in Hayley’s face that she didn’t stand a chance in hell of hurting the former Slayer.

“Lightman’s sniffing around a potential case,” Faith said abruptly, breaking the fragile silence that had fallen between them. ‘Lightman’ was her nickname for Bryce – a seventeen year old computer prodigy who had recently adopted Parker and Hardison as his parents.

“He thinks nobody’s caught onto the fact that he only finds cases for you three when Nate and Sophie are out of the country,” Eliot said, feeling his blood pressure rise on hearing the news. Faith’s father had been very open in his disapproval of Hayley and Bryce joining the “family” business, preferring that they channel their desire to help make the world a better place into getting college educations like normal kids their age.

He’d bent only after Faith had agree to watch over the other two and guide them as best she could. Things in Faith’s past made it difficult for her to accompany Leverage International on any jobs they took out of the area, and she was well past the age or mindset for college to do her any good, although Nate had offered more than once to pay her way – so she had the time.

“This one might actually end up in your laps,” Faith admitted. “He’s talking to Hardison this afternoon – they’re supposed to do some recon and see just how deep the corruption runs.”

“I don’t like the idea of Hayley going back out without getting to talk to Sophie first,” Eliot admitted. “Any chance she can sit this one out?

Faith actually laughed at him. “You’re welcome to propose the idea,” she said. “Just don’t look at me after she hands you your ass for it.”  
*********************************  
 _My father’s daughter indeed._ Once again, Olivia’s instincts had paid off handsomely. MOU, Inc. had already been apprised of the rumored felony evidence against them, and as such were more than willing to listen to her proposal. An hour of answering some well-researched, very pointed questions had led to a second meeting with the company’s head of physical security as well as the harried-looking man who had been stuck with overseeing their cyber security. Phillip had suggested that they go immediately to the server room so Olivia could begin assessing the situation for herself.

“First thing,” she said, glancing to make certain she had Phillip’s undivided attention, “you need to strip these files off the server entirely.” She highlighted the files in question to show him what she meant. “Hard copies only, secured in Mr. Kreylik’s office.”

"Do you have any idea how long that will take?" Philip asked skeptically.

"I couldn't say, sir," said Olivia, keeping her face straight with an effort. "But it's the only way to be sure."

"In a situation like this, shouldn't we disconnect our system from the network? Stick to the building LAN connection? " asked the head of physical security. "It will mean rendering all development in-house for the duration of the problem, but at least it would keep our data secure wouldn't it?"

"Hypothetically, sir. But in a situation of this magnitude, I'm afraid it's really beyond the level of going into your Network and Sharing Center and hitting 'disconnect'. It's a near-certainty that these hackers have already created a backdoor into your system that they can turn on at will. You could turn it off from this end, hypothetically speaking, but you would have to find it first on whichever machine it's currently occupied. And that would introduce risks to the registry that I'm not sure you're paying me enough to field."

“You make a very compelling point, Miss Sterling, of course. But be that as it may, if we’re facing the level of hacker you said,” Phillip stammered, “won’t they be able to reconstruct whatever we take off?”

Resisting the urge to level the man with one of her ‘are you really that fucking stupid?’ glares, an urge that was getting more and more overpowering by the minute, Olivia instead held up the tiny flash drive she’d set next to the keyboard. “We want them to try,” she said. “Hard copy archives are the latest corporate move to thwart hackers. In light of the rumors, they’re already expecting you’ll go this route. This program lies dormant until they start trying to reconstruct the files – when it activates though, it’s the cyber-equivalent of a nuke to the face.”

Of course, that was a gross oversimplification of what was actually involved, but gross oversimplifications had their place. These were the heads of their respective branches of security at MOU, yes, but in this day and age that didn't have to mean a damn thing. She didn't have the cold read skills of a "true" grifter, on a level with Hayley Spencer or, god forbid, Sophie Devereaux. Olivia still felt she could say with some confidence, however, that the head of physical security had probably graduated with a degree in management, and the head of cybersecurity probably hadn't touched a development environment since the Sapphire Worm took the Internet by storm.

The quicker she fed them a suitably palatable generalization, the sooner they would shut up, give her what she needed, and let her get to work.

“Nuclear bombs can cause considerable collateral damage,” the head of physical security noted. “Assuming these hackers can even get past our security, what’s to keep your little surprise from damaging our own files?”

“Mr. Zimmer,” Olivia said, trying not to completely channel James Sterling as she looked the man over, “your own files are safe because I am the best at what I do." And because, whatever happened, provided they did what they were told they would have physical copies to fall back on and re-upload. Tedious, but safe. There was a reason typewriters were still around, and it wasn't nostalgia.

"And as far as the people coming after you being able to get through your security?” Letting her laughter work for her, she turned back to the keyboard and prepared to do battle.  
***********************************  
“What are you doing?” Parker hissed, frowning at him.

Eyeing her cautiously, Hardison went to their refrigerator and grabbed a pair of Orange Squeeze cans. “Getting some sustenance. What’s wrong?”

“You should be out there with Bryce,” Parker scolded. “If you’re in here, that means he’s doing the hack all be himself, and that’s not okay.”

Tension bled out of him in a rush when he realized why Parker was acting so prickly. “Mama, he’s fine. I did a hack like this when I was younger than him – Bryce knows what he’s up against.” He leaned against their breakfast counter for emphasis and gazed up at her. “I know we’re all freaked by what happened to Hayley, but Parker – our boy was never in any danger. You have to relax.”

Reaching out, he covered her hand with his own. The thief allowed the contact just long enough to show Hardison she was relaxing, then pulled free. “Okay – I relaxed. You get back in there and be a good father. Nate keeps reminding me that children like ours need proper supervision!”

Smiling, Hardison nevertheless did as she was told. Parker had very definite ideas on the type of parents they were supposed to be, and while they were sometimes not exactly what he would have chosen to do, there was no denying Bryce had flourished under their guiding hand. _We need to do something about that little crush he’s nursing on Hayley though,_ he thought. There was no way Eliot was going to be okay with somebody like Bryce dating his precious baby girl.

“Got us the elixir of life, champ,” he announced on returning to the living room. “How’s…” His voice trailed off as he realized the answer to his intended question was very obviously ‘not well’.

“Dad?” Bryce stammered, a very obvious note of fear in his voice. The boy cast one look over his shoulder, and Hardison immediately dropped the sodas – running for his abandoned seat.

“Move!” he snapped, abandoning his terminal for Bryce’s – the kid was so petrified that he literally threw himself from his chair, ending up sprawled on the floor before scrambling back to his feet.

One look didn't tell him everything, but it told him enough. It was an extremely well-crafted trap, the kind Hardison couldn’t have sworn he would have been safe from in Bryce’s shoes. He couldn't blame the kid for freezing up. Especially for people like them, computers and electronics became natural extensions of their wills, constant companions, fixtures in their lives. That left them better prepared to deal with a crises like this, yes, but it also made the shock all the worse when - and it was always "when" - all those preparations came to nothing. Somehow, there was always the sense that _it shouldn't happen to me._ The comparison had been made to a beloved family pet that had just taken a chunk out of your leg, and Hardison thought it was very apt.

The sight of a computer operating, to all appearances, on its own, would never fail to be unsettling when he was on the wrong side of the trap. It was almost its own form of psychological warfare, in a way - but so much of what they did, attack and defense, had at least a smidgeon of psychological warfare involved. That was made it effective. That was what made it fun, right up until it all went to hell.

But there would be time enough for explanations. The time for damage control was five seconds ago.

“Hard shut down on my system,” he ordered, setting whatever he could in motion to burn everything along the connection between Bryce’s computer and the server they’d hacked. “Unplug everything – even the battery backup.”

“What about the modem?” Bryce asked; already scrambling to do as he’d been told.

“Not yet…” Hardison cautioned, finally getting into the headspace he needed in order to pull this off. _Deep breaths. It's just a machine. Just code. You're smarter than it._ Whoever had written the code might be another story, but they weren't relevant right here and right now.

God, he didn't know why Eliot was always on him to work out. No amount of jogging could ever match the adrenaline rush of trying to beat back malware before it could rewrite another application to its will. “Get your mother and the two of you head to Faith and Eliot’s place.” Any question or whether or not Bryce understood exactly what they were up against was answered when he glanced at his foster son and saw Bryce staring back at him – eyes wide with genuine fear.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and Hardison exhaled softly – seeing tears in the boy’s eyes.

“Nothing to be sorry about,” he said, “lessen you don’t do what I tell you. Get Parker and the two of you get out of here now!”

As Bryce finally scrambled to obey, Hardison turned his attention back to making sure whoever had set the trap his son had fallen into wasn’t left with enough information to trace it back to their hearth and home.  
*************************************  
 _If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected._

Most colloquial translations of _The Art of War_ lost something in the re-telling, in Olivia's definite opinion, but the general thrust of his points were timeless.

Honeypots were always somewhat dicey operations, but the payoff when they worked was glorious. The main benefit came from knowing exactly where your target was going to be, exactly what they would be seeing, and exactly what they would be taking back with them. From there, you could set the situation to your advantage as needed. The trick, of course, was to leave a sufficiently tempting target without alerting your opponent that here might just be something too good to be true. Since she knew exactly what Bryce would be digging for, that was easy enough. It looked, to a cursory examination or a reasonably well-constructed packet sniffer, like just the type of file he needed. What lay beneath, however...well, the "nuclear bomb" comparison was somewhat apt, if she said so herself, if nuclear bombs also came packaged with built-in looters.

Of course, like with any nuclear bomb, there was the possibility of some collateral damage on her end before he became too occupied on his, but probably not enough time to reconstruct anything important. And if not, well, even he couldn't hack a physical document in a locked filing cabinet in an office one floor above hers'.

Not yet, anyway.

Of course, had she been dealing with Alec Hardison, there was no way she could have pulled this off. After as long as he'd spent in the game, she had no doubt that he'd have a connoisseur's sense for a computerized trap.

So it was a good thing she wasn't dealing with Alec Hardison. Through Bryce would doubtless go running to daddy in very short order, she didn't need her trap to work forever, or go undetected. In fact, she'd programmed it to be very visible as it did its work, to make the shock all the worse when she came up with all the information she needed anyway.  
**************************************  
“I’m going out,” Hayley announced as soon as they were safely back at the apartment. She started for her room, but Faith caught her by the wrist and pulled her up short.

“Not yet,” she said, glancing significantly towards the window where Eliot was on the phone with Parker. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Hayley sighed. “It’s Parker – who knows what’s good or bad to her?”

Faith scowled. “Your dad is very good at reading Parker’s moods, and I’m very good at reading his.” Tightening her grip briefly for emphasis before letting go, Faith crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s not going to kill you to see what’s up before going out to caffeinate your wounds.”

Her pronouncement was met with an answering scowl, but Hayley did as she’d been told, so Faith took the win.

They only had another handful of moments to wait before Eliot hung up the phone and joined them. “Parker and Bryce are on their way over here,” he said, his expression grim. “Somebody knew he was hitting that energy drink company today – Hardison said the trap he set off was written to target him or Bryce.”

“What’s he doing?” Faith asked, mentally preparing herself to go haul Hardison out of the brew pub by force if necessary. “Why isn’t he with Parker and Bryce?”

“He thinks he can keep the worst of this from coming back on us,” Eliot said. “I’m gonna go watch his back – I need you to hunker down here and protect the others.” His gaze shifted to his daughter. “We gonna have a fight about this?”

To her credit, Hayley was self-aware enough to pick her battles wisely – if not well. “Stay here, help keep Bryce from going off the rails, listen to Faith and don’t give her any trouble,” she intoned. “Got it.” After a beat, Faith saw hints of the girl who’d only recently come to know her father shine through the snark. “Be safe, okay?” Crossing the distance that separated them in two quick strides, she threw her arms around Eliot and hugged him.

 _I am absolutely not going to cry,_ Faith thought as Eliot looked across his daughter at her, and she saw just how affected he was by her spontaneous gesture. Hayley and Eliot’s relationship had experienced more growing pains than Faith’s had with her own father. Hayley wasn’t who Eliot would have raised as a daughter, and she knew Eliot wasn’t who Hayley would have chosen for her father. The two of them had committed to making things work, however, and Faith understood from walking her own twisted path with Nate that as long as they held onto that, the rest would sort itself out.

Her phone vibrated for her attention just then, jarring her from her too-deep thoughts. “Text,” she said when Eliot and Hayley looked at her. The number wasn’t one she immediately recognized, but the tone when she opened it, as well as the name attached to it, sent a chill down her spine.

“MoU, Inc. is under my protection,” she read for the others’ benefit. “Make no further move against them and I won’t turn your precious mini-Hardison into the authorities.” Faith glanced up at Eliot. “It’s from Olivia Sterling.”  
*******************************************  
Olivia’s feelings about Nate Ford had been complicated since the first time they’d met. Even before she knew her father had hired Ford and his crazy band of pseudo vigilantes to rescue her, she’d been drawn to his good looks and his obvious intellect. Learning the details of his connection to her father, and then her stepmother had only served to deepen her fascination. Olivia held her father’s respect for law and order, but Nathan Ford had a power in him to make you question everything you held as true.

Finding him in her apartment, on the other hand – Olivia knew _exactly_ where that fell on the good-bad scale. “If you’re really as smart as they say,” she told him, tossing her briefcase to one side and pulling out her phone, “you’ll be gone by the time I finish this call.”

Ford didn’t move – his expression absolutely unreadable. Olivia tried twice to dial 911, but when the call didn’t go through either time the mastermind finally cleared his throat.

 _Son of a bitch,_ she thought, shoulders slumping in defeat as she recognized the signal jammer that had suddenly materialized in Ford’s left hand. “All right, fine,” she said, shoving the useless smart phone in her coat pocket. “We both know you’re not here to hurt me, so say what you came here to say and get out.”

“You’re right,” Ford said calmly. “I’m not here to hurt you, or even threaten you for what you did. I’ll even let you hide behind your father if you want – you’re still young.”

Olivia hated that she bristled almost on cue. “My father has nothing to do with this.”

Nate shook his head. “He absolutely does. You’ve already admitted that you expect I won’t hurt you for what you’ve done because of my relationship with your father and stepmother. What you need to appreciate, Olivia, is that you can’t have it both ways. Either you are still a child and I’ll deal with your father about your behavior, or you’re an adult and ready to come at us on your own terms. Choose.”

As determined as she was to stand her ground, Olivia couldn’t stop herself from flinching back at the flash of genuine anger in the mastermind’s blue eyes. “No matter how good and righteous you consider yourself Mr. Ford,” she said, drawing herself up proudly and forcing herself to reclaim the lost ground, “you and your people are criminals. My father is right – there is a time and a place for dealing with the corruption you pursue.”

“Choose, Ms. Sterling,” Nate intoned. “Now.”

A curious sense of calm washed through Olivia then. She knew what she wanted, and she knew she was in the right to want it. “Game on, Mr. Ford. It’s been too long since somebody worthy has challenged your self-assigned position as arbiter of the world’s woes. I’m just the woman to do it. Game on, Mr. Ford.”

_Game fucking on._


End file.
